Letters to the Editor
-
No such thing as a free market
The idea of a free market that functions smoothly on its own is only practical in theory as is communism. The problem is that the corporations that are the engines of the market are run by people who don't necessarily make rational decisions. Case in point, a current argument as to why women don't make as much as men in the workplace is that women aren't as aggressive as men in demanding higher salaries. If that were true and a free market really worked, every corporation would be hiring equally qualified women as executives since they cost less.
Another problem with the free market idea is that time and time again, business has shown its desire to not compete rather than compete and win. Our current market shows that a major business in any industry would rather remove their competitors rather than compete with them. That is what mergers are all about.
And lets not forget the impact the stock market has on the free market. You have a company, its not doing to well at the moment, but you need to please your investors, what are you going to do? Compete harder or fire 10% of your staff to make your P&L statements look more attractive to wall street? The stock market inherently cripples the free market because now companies have two different sets of customers and they can't please both.
Time and time again companies have shown their willingness to harm or kill their customers. Now how is that 'free market'? With out severe governmental oversight to protect individual consumers from the power of multi-national billion or trillion dollar behemoths, we don't stand a chance.
In its ultimate expression of the free market there would be one company and we'd all be slaves, and I bet you every major ceo jerks off thinking about that.
I do agree the market can help with the environment, I firmly believe it would only be when they are forced to. If left to their own devices by the time the market realized something needed to be done, it'd be too late.